- Safiu Kehinde
Abia lawmaker, Sen. Orji Kalu has called for strict check on Nigerian pilots as he alleged that some of them smoke Indian hemp and use drugs before flight.
Kalu made the allegation while speaking during the Senate’s plenary session on Wednesday.
The former Abia state governor, who had seconded the motion for the probe of runway incident involving an Air Peace flight in Port Harcourt in July, held that some of the pilots are always unprepared for their flight.
He called out the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and other aviation agencies for leaving the pilots unchecked.
“The authorities guiding these pilots. Some of them are very lousy. I’ve on many occasions stopped flight because inadequacy of pilots’ preparations.
“Some of the pilots are not prepared. Some of them use Indian hemp. Some of them smoke Indian hemp. And some of them are not properly audited by the authority.
“I am telling you what I know because NCAA and NEMA and other authorities are not looking after these pilots and check them on drugs, on-the-spot assessment.
“They are not doing it, and it is dangerous. If you see them walking into the airplane, nobody checks their luggage, nobody checks anything.” He said.
Kalu maintained that most of the modern aircraft are now automatically operated with little assistance from pilots.
He however claimed that Nigerian pilots’ alleged drug usage makes them unable to effectively operate the aircraft.
“Most of modern aircraft have automatic landing gear system. It doesn’t need a pilot to land the plane. What lands the plane is the computer, auto pilots.
“But because some of them are high, they are not able to do this thing.
“Any aircraft that is of new generation don’t need a pilot to fly because landing and take-off are clearly automatic.
“Most of these pilots are so careless. I have witnessed by myself. I wanted to fly but I told my pilot no I don’t think you are normal to take me.” He said.
The lawmaker called on the aviation agencies to look after the pilots while calling for a mandatory quarterly maintenance of the runways across the country’s airports by the Ministry of Aviation.
“All these agencies must come back to look after these pilots. Some of them take these Indian hemps like cigarette. If you go close to them, you will smell it.
“NCAA must come back to their duty. The Minister of aviation must be forced to do quarterly maintenance on the runways. Some of the runways are not in good shape.” He added.